Growing up, I knew a set of twins. Not the easiest on the eyes, a bit rough around the edges, built like tanks, and slightly awkward, but I guess most young people are a bit awkward, and they stuck together constantly. On numerous occasions, I witnessed the pair endure teasing from others, and on one occurrence, I made an attempt to intervene by berating one of their verbal abusers, pointing out his flaws to defend them. I felt as though standing up for them displayed a true sign of compassion on my part, and as I was preparing to recieve some imaginary nobel prize, one of them glared at me and said, "If we needed your help, we would have asked for it." My ego now shattered, I nearly burst into tears, knowing that, somehow, my words had done more harm than good. I never forgot that moment obviously. A few years later, I ran into them again. It was at the mall arcade, which was pretty empty for that time of day. So, it was easy to recognize their voices, as I heard one of them call out to the other in the same manner that I remembered, but I doubted that they would recall me. The years passing had been kind to me, and it seemed that they too had their own sort of glowup. I hoped that I could get their attention and befriend them at this point in our lives. Knowing that in the past, they constantly called out to each other "Hey, stupid!" and referred each other in somewhat derogatory terms to get each other's attention, I somehow gathered that if I addressed them in that same way, then, I could possibly break the ice and introduce myself the way I always wanted to. So, I, excitedly just go for it. I call out to them at the top of my lungs, "Hey, stupid!" As noisy as the arcade usually is, everything seemed to become eerily silent during these moments. I thought that maybe they were either too into their game to take notice of me, or were simply ignoring my shouting, but just before I began to leave the area feeling slightly embarrassed at the implied rejection, they both turned towards me, and one even began to approach me. Focusing on her, and eager to finally introduce myself, I smiled widely. I mistakenly thought she was smiling too, but as she came closer, the room lighting slowly began to reveal that it was more of a wince, and slightly confused look. As she came into striking distance, she asked in the softest, yet most intensely threatening voice I'd ever heard, "What did you just say?" I nervously replied, "I said, Hey stupid. I mean that is what you call each other right?" "I'm Kinyata, nice to..." I was interrupted by a sort of grunt and sigh followed by an eyeroll. Her facial expression spoke that I had undoubtely just doubled down on pure ignorance. Knowing surely that I was going to be punched in the face soon, I began to brace myself internally for impact. I felt my entire body shrink to the size of an orange as I closed my eyes and turned my face downward, accepting that I probably deserved what was coming. To my surprise, after the anti-climatic passing of a few moments, I looked up at her and saw that she had actually taken a couple steps to create distance between us, and responded by saying, "Yeah, that's what I thought you said." Her facial expression then turned into the most empty, soulless, gaze and she held it as she backed further away from me. I had never felt more dead to anyone, and after what seemed like an eternity, as she finally turned her back toward me and walked away, I instantly knew that I had made a mistake that I couldn't redeem myself from. It was the kind of look that a person gives that somehow lingers beyond the time that a person is facing your direction; it was ghostly. She went back to comfort her sister who appeared to be having a panic attack, and was sobbing profusely. I didn't even notice her sister's reaction to my words, as I was so caught up in the opportunity to finally make a new friend. I watched quietly, quelling tears, as she gently rubbed her hands along her sisters arms to bring her out of the state that my words had triggered. The fear of being attacked for what I said was bad. But seeing the distress I unintentionally caused someone I didn't even know was worse. Since that moment, I've done my best to be careful with my words.